


Parasite

by aperture_living



Category: OFF (Game)
Genre: Drama, Family Drama, Gen, Manipulation, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-25
Updated: 2013-05-25
Packaged: 2017-12-12 22:10:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/816610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aperture_living/pseuds/aperture_living
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There were two cats, but only one felt abandoned.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Parasite

**Author's Note:**

> Awhile ago, I asked for prompts for OFF fics, and someone asked for a fic on how Japhet wound up in Valerie. I wanted to almost do this like an Aesop's Fable sort of thing, and I hope it comes across with a hint of that. Thank you for reading!

There were two cats, but only one felt abandoned.

Valerie’s brother had a title, had friends, had respect and insight and introspection. He had fans; Pablo had told him, not as a motion of bragging, but as something humble and careful, an astute observation. He was important, needed, vital in the entire grand scheme of things, and Valerie...

...wasn’t. Hadn’t felt he was for a long time. Instead, he was a footnote. Left behind. Insignificant. Where was _his_ title? Where was his vital asset to a world that seemed to have roles strategically pre-assigned? Where was his place in this land, in this life, other than in the shadow of the person he loved the most?

Nowhere. Or it felt like nowhere, at least. And small feline lungs sighed, restless, alone, a trembling breath that was swallowed up by the sound of the plastic’s current that he sat beside. Zone 2 was good for this melancholy, if only because the Elsen here were too wrapped up in their own lives and fun and fear to wonder about a single cat who looked forlorn, who looked so dreadfully alone. 

His brother had plans, had people to take him away and keep him tied up in errands and laughter while he, he sat alone by the shore with a boring openness of an empty schedule. And it _ate_ at him, this disquiet, this seclusion, wrapped him inside his own world while everything passed him by.  
 _  
Brother. Valerie. Do not let it worry you. I will always have time for you._

Except today. Except this day, the anniversary of his birth, the venture of another year that passed and another that promised, yawned before him like a gaping maw, deceptively welcoming. Except for the day he wanted Pablo there the most. 

And as he thought about it, and as it turned relentlessly in his head, he saw a pedalo go past, loosed from its summoning point, ownerless, driverless. Like a mirage, it appeared so much closer than it was, almost close enough to touch, surely close enough to hop on. Ducking under the rubber railings, Valerie swore he could reach it and pull it back in, could save it and prove that he was needed, dammit; it was his moment to shine, to get a title, to get fans. Back claws digging into the fuscia ground, he stretched paw out, craning, straining, tail up and out as teeth clenched and bared themselves. 

“Almost. Almost!”

But the ground gave way underneath him, enough erosion that sent him tumbling into the liquid plastic, the current’s grip a merciless affair. Swimming to the pedalo was impossible, the liquid thick and heavy and trying to drag him down, down, down to the depths of whatever lurked beneath the surface (he was utterly terrified to find out). He broke up once, gasping and sputtering a breath before being pulled along again, the shore growing distant, the hopeful duck boat lost. Cats didn’t do well in anything molten, anything fluid, and it showed in the way he flailed, in the way he bucked and cried into the air before he bobbed out of sight once more. 

_Being your brother, Valerie, being there for you, it’s the most important role I have._

Everything was a swirl of white, of motion, of shadows as he rushed farther away, moved beyond hope. If his brother had just been here, if Pablo had been with him on his birthday, he wouldn’t be here now, wouldn’t be drowning, wouldn’t be dying on such an ironic anniversary. Would Pablo even know? Would he even know what had happened, or would he think that he had just wandered off, always destined to walk back when he wasn’t so spurned?

The surface broke, the air slapping across his face, as he opened his mouth to wail. 

“BROTHER!” he screamed, knowing there was no way for his sibling to hear him; sounds would never carry across Zones. “HELP ME!”

The words were cut off, savage and sharp as a bird chirped from above, “I can help you, you poor forgotten thing. I can help you with everything, but you must help me in return.”

Valerie looked up, eyes wide and frightened before he dipped under the plastic once again, the world hazy and wavering, the bird a warped shape where it hung in the sky. For a moment, it looked huge, the size of a house, ominous and amazing, majestic and powerful. Impossible. Beautiful. Perfect. But as he went up again, clawing his way to the air, he saw it for what it was: small and petite, almost cute. 

It didn’t matter how this bird could save him, just as long as it could. 

“Yes! Yes! Anything! Any--”

And suddenly Valerie was choking again, though different now, distinctly different, this time feeling his mouth full of feathers instead of plastic, full of wings instead of death, full of beak and talons and _power_. His body, small and stuck in the sea, felt close to bursting, as if his skin had seams and the stitching was unraveling, tearing itself apart. Claws protracted, retracted, and his tail swished in the deathly thickness, movement that he hadn’t requested.  
 _  
I would tear down all the zones in this land if it meant I could be with you always, dearest Valerie._

When Japhet crawled to shore, the Elsens looked the other way, neither noticing nor caring at their new guardian’s near death. But with claws like these, with a body like this, he could make them pay attention once more. 

Both of them, host and parasite, could get the consideration they were so dutifully promised.


End file.
